Second Mortgage on an Investment instead of waiting to do a HELOC?

[Nella DiBenedetto]

Hi BP fam! I need some advice. I just bought a home as a primary and rehabbed it. My LTV is still too high (due to me only putting 4% down) to pull out the amount of equity that I am wanting to convert the garage into an ADU. I am currently losing about $200/month with just renting rooms out. Once I complete the garage conversion, I will be cash flowing roughly $800-1000/month. I am wanting to renovate next spring, once my tenants leases are up. So my question is, do I wait until next spring when I want to start renovations to see if home prices go up more to pull out a HELOC on my primary? Or do I pull a second mortgage on another one of my investment properties now and start the renovations sooner rater than later? (I will still be cash flowing about $100/month on my investment property after pulling out the amount needed for renovations). Another caveat, I am currently a travel nurse and have "stable income" so my lenders are happy at the moment. I am planning on changing careers in the next 6 months or so and my lender said, depending on how I get paid with my new job, I may need to wait two years to be able to pull any money out of my homes until I prove I have stable income again. So again, should I just pull out a secondary mortgage (while I have "stable income") and start making payments now, or wait and do a HELOC on my primary when I am able to? I would be paying off my secondary mortgage within 4-5 years as well. If all else fails, I can stay in my job for another year or so if need be... but I would rather get out of nursing if possible. Any thoughts or other ideas are much appreciated!! Clearly I don't know what to do... Thank you!!